Allentown officials get emergency permit to fix crack in Lehigh Canal

A cracked storm-water pipe in Allentown is siphoning water from the Lehigh Canal, leaving some of its beds dryer than usual.

Allentown received an emergency permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection and will begin work this week to fix it. Officials from Allentown and Bethlehem say if they work fast, there should be no long-term consequences for the canal or its wildlife.

The city discovered Monday that part of the storm-water drainage system for east Allentown was damaged. The dual pipes — officials aren't sure if one or both are damaged — are supposed to carry rainwater under the canal and into the Lehigh River.

But the crack in the storm-water system, about 200 feet east of the Hamilton Street Bridge, means not only is storm water draining into the river but water is also being drawn from the Lehigh Canal, cutting water levels starting in Allentown and continuing east to Bethlehem.

Kevin Sunday, spokesman for the DEP, said Allentown will hire a contractor to build a simple temporary structure, called a cofferdam, to ensure the water stays in the canal and doesn't drain into the river.

"When [workers] get that dam up and the water not leaking, then the water flowing is going to be restored to local levels," Sunday said.

Rich Young, Allentown's public works director, said the city should have the problem fixed this week.

But Dennis Scholl, outreach coordinator for the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, said portions of the canal in Bethlehem and Freemansburg are totally dry.

Ralph Carp, Bethlehem's director of parks and public property, said the dryness that users of the towpath see every year hasn't worsened.

"There are portions of the canal always typically dry, that's not unusual," he said. "You can't attribute that dryness to the leak."

But whether one attributes the dryness to the leak or not, Scholl sees a silver lining in the damage.

With water levels low, volunteers can clean debris from the banks of the towpath. Included in the repairs will be the removal of a gravel bar in the Lehigh River that impedes river water from entering the canal during periods of low water.

Officials from Bethlehem, Allentown and the DEP inspected the leak Tuesday morning, with Carp saying Allentown could stop it "rather easily and rather quickly."

Allentown hadn't hired a contractor as of Tuesday and didn't have a cost estimate for the project. The city will foot the bill.

The canal has been subject to other natural problems that have led to low water in the past.

In 2009, a sycamore tree is believed to have caused a breach in an Allentown portion of the canal that closed parts of the towpath and killed thousands of fish, eels and other aquatic life.